


Good night, my love

by Papillonn



Series: Bean [3]
Category: British Actor RPF, Marvel, Tom Hiddleston - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Family, Fluff, daddy!Tom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-07
Updated: 2014-10-07
Packaged: 2018-02-20 05:45:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2417120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Papillonn/pseuds/Papillonn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another daddy!tom oneshot. Stella is a terrible sickie and Elle is a nervous wreck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good night, my love

“Ok guys… I need to hear that last line again,” Tom’s voice echoed through the theater, and boomed over the soft groans he received in reply from the throng of actors on stage.

He scowled to himself, digging his phone out of his pocket. Elle was good about not calling during rehearsals. Surely she knew that they were still going. He grumbled, and unlocked the screen, looking through a string of missed calls, and one text.

‘ _Call now!’_

His wife did not usually send such urgent messages. The last time he remembered hearing her so insistent was when she called him after her water broke. A smidge of anxiety gnawed at him, and he was unable to concentrate on what was going on upstage.

“Fuck it… take a ten minute break and then we’ll start over,” he relented, standing up off of the stool he’d been seated in long enough to make his arse howl in opposition. He quickly found a corner of the room to allow privacy, and dialed Elle.

She picked up instantly.

“Why haven’t you been answering?” she demanded, voice shrill.

“I’m in rehearsals,” he replied, his voice on edge, “you know I can’t take calls, darling. What is so bloody important anyway?”

“Stella is sick,” his wife’s voice crumbled as she spoke. “I told you she wasn’t eating! She’s burning up, Tom…. Emma was with her…she took her temperature. It was 104! Tom…that’s too high. She’s _sick_!”

He could hear the anxiety in her voice. They’d worked very hard to keep it under control after Stella’s birth, but right now, it was trickling back to the surface as her concern for their baby took precedence over the exercises she’d learned to control it.

“Shh. Darling, everything will be fine. I’m sure of it. Babies get sick, love. Everything will be fine. I’m going to call Luke and have him get an in-home visit from a pediatrician. I don’t want to risk taking her out in the cold right now.”

His heart nearly split when he heard Stella’s angry cries in the background.

“Ok,” Tom could hear the tears in his wife’s eyes.

“Be calm, papillon. Our baby needs her mummy strong right now,” he soothed, “I will be home in twenty minutes. I am leaving now, ok? Elle, go hold her…sing to her. _Smile_ at her.”

“Ok,” Elle whispered back to him. “I love you,”

“I love you, too.”

 ___________________________________________________________________________ 

He couldn’t help the anxiety that overwhelmed him as he thought about his little girl on the drive home. Luke had immediately sprung into action and telephoned a contact at the hospital. They were sending over a specialist straight away.

His mind drifted to Nora. It always did when he was in distress. It was a gut reaction to any type of physical illness. He and Elle had been incredibly lucky with Stella. She’d been healthy from the get-go. Her development was excellent. Her grabbles were prominent, and pretty soon her crawling would turn into walking. His little angel was nearly a year old and time had gone back so fast.

She’d been sick before. She’d started to teeth not very long ago, and that had been a nightmare. Tom had fallen asleep cradling her many nights after rehearsals, wishing that he could whisk her pain away. He couldn’t stand to see either of his girls cry.

This sounded different, though. The panic that Elle had emanated over the phone sounded raw. She had instincts as a mother he would never understand, but he was incredibly grateful. Sometimes when he was uncertain of what his daughter needed to be content, his beautiful wife could speak for her and she was usually correct.

He was relieved when he pulled into the drive and noted that his sister had left. He loved Emma to bits, but he didn’t want an extra ear or mouth right now working Elle up even more. His sister tended to influence his wife even more than he did.

He parked and ran up the steps quickly, unlocking the front door, and pulling his jacket off in order to chase away the chills. He could hear Stella screaming from upstairs. He swallowed and took the steps a couple at a time, making sure to make plenty of noise so that he didn’t scare his wife.

He found her seated in the rocker, Stella draped over her shoulder as she rubbed her back. She’d stripped her and she wore only a nappy on her bottom.

“How is she?” he asked, coming into the room and falling on the ottoman at Elle’s knees.

“Not too good. I called your mother and she suggested that I keep her as cool as possible. That seemed to help a little. Here… can you try holding here while I get her records ready?”

Tom eagerly reached out for his baby, and winced as he felt the extent of the little one’s fever. She was burning up.

“Hello, my love,” he whispered warmly, pressing cool lips to her forehead. “Mummy says that you are a terrible little sickie,”

He was met with garbles and tiny whimpers that shattered his confidence as a father who could protect his child from anything. As she began to cry once more, he decided to walk around with her, a trick he’d picked up from Sarah, who insisted that her children demanded it when they were babies.

She calmed down slightly, but he still had to worry about his frantic wife. He could hear her in their downstairs office, doors slamming unintentionally as she went about trying to gather up things for the doctor. He carefully made his way down the stairs, holding Stella against his chest, feeling her lips pucker against him while he cooed softly into her fragrant curls. Stella’s hair had turned into a mess of tight blonde curls, nearly white against her skin. She was ruddy and healthy, her eyes rivaling her father’s and her dimples reminding Tom of how much he loved his wife.

He walked into the office and found Elle, papers in hand, fingers combed through her hair in her state of distress.

“She’s ok, darling. Look at her. She just needs to be cuddled, don’t you Stell?”

Elle glared at him. She hated it when Tom called their daughter ‘Stell.’ Her eyes softened when she heard the soft sounds of discomfort coming from her. She frowned.

“I hate seeing her like this,” Elle whispered, afraid she’d disturb Stella’s momentary peace, “I get so scared, Tom.”

“I know, my love,” Tom did his best to wrap a free arm around his wife and hug her shoulders to him. He dropped a kiss on the crown of her head. “She’s ok. Kids get sick… Mum said that I had the croup when I was a baby… Emma had colic, too.” He winced, “I remembered her wailing….”

He watched as tears welled up in her eyes,

“I want her to be well…I want to protect her…” he knew where her mind was traveling, and he lowered his head, “I couldn’t protect Nora. I want to protect Stella.”

“Darling _please_ don’t say those things…. You took care of Nora. You were in an _accident,_ Elle… it was an accident. Stella isn’t Nora.”

It shook Elle to hear those things, but she knew her husband was right. Their baby would be ok. She was scaring herself into a realm of thinking that wasn’t healthy. She looked at her child who was being held protectively by her father, and her heart constricted painfully.

Tom had been such an active participant in Stella’s life. He did not allow his busy career to trump the role of being a dad, and he had a special bond with her that was unmatched. She was so grateful that he loved her so much and was willing to drop everything to be there for the both of them.

“I’m sorry I am being crazy.”

“You’re a worried mum. You’re the woman that I am madly in love with and a brilliant mother to our little one. Just relax, sweetheart.” His eyes crinkled in a small smiled, reserved just for her. She returned it and stepped closer, burying her face between his shoulder, and Stella’s head, comforted by the two of them. Her family.

 ____________________________________________________________________

“She’s out,” Tom announced, coming into the bedroom he and Elle shared. His wife was perched on the end of the bed, rubbing lotion into her legs, the smell of her shampoo drifting through the room. He’d demanded that after the doctor left and they were positive that Stella was ok, that she have a shower while he put the baby down for the night. The medicine that had been administered was meant to make her drowsy, so Tom was hopeful that he and Elle would sleep through the night.

“How was she?”

“Sleepy. She smiled at me a few times, that was a good sign,” he said thoughtfully. “I can’t wait until she can say dad.”

Elle smiled at her husband,

“She’ll probably call you Tom before dad considering Luke’s influence.”

Tom frowned.

“Maybe I’ll have him start calling me dad around her,”

This made Elle laugh hard. Tom began to strip his clothing with a sigh. He needed a nice shower to relax his muscles and then a good night’s rest.

“I’ll wait up,” she told him eagerly as she stepped naked into the bathroom, giving him the perfect view of his bubble butt. He grinned at her and then turned the shower faucet.

It was fifteen minutes later when he stepped out of the steam filled bathroom, he quickly found a pair of pajama pants and padded to the bed in the center of the room. Just as he suspected, Elle was passed out cold, her neck slumped awkwardly as if she’d been trying to keep herself awake. He smiled to himself and brushed a hand over her face, dusting hair out of her eyes. It was during moments like those that he appreciated how much he continued to love her, just as fiercely as he loved her when they were young. Now Elle was his wife and the mother of a little human that he loved perfectly.

He carefully slid into bed, and on instinct, she rolled close to him, mumbling while she slept. He wrapped his arms around her loosely and kissed her cheek.

“Good night, my love.”


End file.
